It’s Hard to Say Yes When No is in Your Soul

A few years ago a number of us at church sat around, trying to figure out the nature of our little community. We've never been very "successful," at least not in the ways that can be easily measured. A lot of people have come and gone over the years. Someone finally said, "I think we are a hospital church for the spiritually wounded. I think that is our gift." That person was right. A hospital church for the spiritually wounded. And the world is filled with wounded people. In one of the best things I've read in some time, High Calling blogger Ann Voskamp writes about the deep spiritual wounds left in her father and her family after the death of her sister. As she puts it, even after she said yes to God, she found herself living "no" from Monday through Saturday. Fabulous stuff! Don't miss it.

“Did you ever used to go to church? Like a long time ago, Dad?” The neighboring Williams family took turns with the van Veen family, picking me up Sunday mornings for the drive into town and services. “Yeah, we went. Your grandmother had us go every Sunday, after milking was done. That was important to her.” I kept my eyes on his dark strands of hair running through my fingers. “But it’s not important to you now?” The words, barely whispered, hung. He pushed up his plaid sleeves, shifted his head, his eyes still closed. “Oh….” I waited, hands combing, waiting for him to find the words for those feelings that don’t fit neatly into the stiff ties, the starched collars, of sentences. “No, I guess not anymore. The day Aimee died, I was done with all of that.” ...Read More.